1 John 4:16
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
There is no question that love sits at the heart of the faith. As we have seen in this devotional series, many scriptures direct us to live our lives and do our work directed by love.
I Corinthians 13 says that three things abound: grace, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. In John 13 we are given the new commandment: to love each other as Christ loves us. The great commandment in scripture is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The First John passage above tells us that God is love.
It is worth being reminded (again) that because love is so prominent in the way the Lord wants us to live our lives, it is imperative that we have a right understanding of love. It is precisely on this point that we must be very careful.
Here is a massively important truth: Scripture says that God is love, but it does not say that love is God. Unfortunately, many people have made love the deity; they have made an idol of their idealized definition of love, and then they equate that false definition of love with who God is. But scripture tells us that love does not define God; rather, God defines love.
The critical point is this: Love is not something you feel, it is something you do. Love is an action, not an emotion. This is why love should be the servant of your will, not the slave of your emotions. Yes, feelings matter, but feelings flow from agape love, but feelings don’t direct agape love.
Love is sometimes a feeling, but it is always a choice.
There two very different loves that compete for the hearts and affections of people. On one side is authentic love that is directed by the light of God’s word; on the other side is counterfeit love that is distorted by the darkness of the world. God’s love is based on kingdom purposes, principles, and service to others. Counterfeit love is based on passions, preferences, and service to self.
I wrote about this in last week’s devotional:
“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” (1 John 2.10-11)
John states that whoever claims to believe in Jesus but does not love his brother is a person who is still in the darkness. They might claim to be in the light, but the absence of love reveals they have embraced a counterfeit. Where the true light of Christ shines, there is authentic love.
I will repeat what we said last week: Abiding in the light precedes and produces walking in love.
This is the great battle we must fight in our time: Hate distorted by the darkness of the world versus love directed by the light of God’s truth. When you reject or eliminate the light of God’s truth, the inevitable result is hate toward others. Darkness leads to hate and conflict; light leads to love and unity.
This is precisely what we are seeing in today’s social / political climate. Those who reject God’s truth—on the left or the right—are blinded by hate and walk in darkness. If you read their comments on social media, it is very clear they are distorted and disoriented. They do not know where they are going because the darkness has blinded their eyes.
May the followers of Jesus walk daily in the light and love of God’s truth. May our light so shine before the watching world that people see and experience the true love of the Creator and Redeemer.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6.22-23)
